Lady Knights lose overtime thriller
Murphy – It took a buzzer-beating 3 and a war of free throws to knock off the Lady Knights on Tuesday night.
Robbinsville (13-4, 4-4) pushed the undefeated Murphy Lady Bulldogs (15-0, 7-0) to their very limit in the two programs’ first meeting of the year, but a fourth-quarter rally bid fell short in an overtime loss, 57-54.
“Tough game. Anybody had to lose it, but I hate we had to lose it,” Robbinsville head coach Lucas Ford said. “I’m not so sure we came into the game knowing we could win. I think we thought we could win, but I don’t know that we knew it.
“Now, we know we can win any given game. These girls are practicing hard every day and have came a long way.”
Plagued by turnovers for the first three quarters, Robbinsville counted itself lucky to enter the fourth in just a 4-point hole, made possible by Desta Trammell launching a trey as the 5-second mark of the third stanza.
The Lady Knights came to life in the fourth, beginning the segment on an 8-0 run. Halee Anderson would hit a jumper that tied things up, while Trammell would follow 30 seconds later with the go-ahead lay-up, which gave Robbinsville its first lead of the contest.
“They run a really effective 1-3-1 zone and half-court set and that’s something you don’t see very often in high school basketball,” said Ford. “We made some adjustments and started setting some screens, attacking it. Once we started doing that, we started finding some open gaps and having some success.”
As the clock wound down, the Knights were in the driver’s seat and led 47-44. But Murphy’s Sydni Addison would launch a desperation 3 at the buzzer that improbably sank through the net, forcing an overtime period.
Robbinsville was 4-of-6 from the charity stripe during free basketball, but the Lady Bulldogs were 7-of-11 and managed to keep the Lady Knights at-bay and escape with a victory.
“You’ve got a 15-0 team and a 13-4 team … hopefully, we’ll see them at least two more times this year, maybe three,” Ford added. “I think we know we can beat anybody at this point.
“We’ve talked a lot over the last couple of days about consistency, because it seems like we’ve been on a roller coaster all year. We’ll play a good game and then we’ll have a bad one. Once we find consistency, I can see this team doing really big things.”
Trammell led Robbinsville with 23 points. Also scoring was Yeika Jimenez 7, Gabby Hooper 6, Karlyn Matheson 6, Kennedy Cable 5, Anderson 4 and Kensley Phillips 3.
The week began Wednesday, Jan. 22, in a make-up game at Highlands (10-10, 4-0). Robbinsville’s offense struggled, but the Lady Knights still prevailed 34-31.
Friday, Robbinsville put a 66-60 overtime loss Dec. 20 at Hayesville (10-9, 4-5) in the rearview mirror, showing the strides made since by thumping the Lady Jackets in the rematch at home, 59-25.
Individuals stats from the Highlands and Hayesville games were not available at press time.
Robbinsville’s Desta Trammell heaves a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of Tuesday’s road game at Murphy. The shot could have sent the battle into double overtime, but it bounced off the rim and sealed the Lady Bulldogs’ 57-54 win over the Lady Knights.
Junior varsity
Coming off a 65-33 loss at Cherokee on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the junior varsity Lady Knights (0-8) fell to Highlands 40-17 and Hayesville 41-21.
Against the Lady Highlanders, Kandee Stewart scored a team-high seven points. Also scoring was Emma Birnhisel 5, Madisyn Ellington 3 and Chloe Phillips 2.
The loss to the Lady Jackets featured Stewart again leading the way, scoring 11 points. Others to score were Ellington 4 and Phillips, Birnhisel and Montana Buchanan with two points each.